Not surprisingly, the second Nutmeg State Poll tracking the race for governor in Connecticut found Gov. Ned Lamont with a 57% to 13% lead among likely Democratic primary voters over his long-shot challenger, Rep. Josh Elliott of Hamden.

But the poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, one of several it conducts in New England states, was not without a dash of encouragement for Elliott: His number nearly doubled from November, when the margin was 55% to 7%. The percentage of undecideds fell from 37% to 29%.

Lamont’s job approval rating was a tepid +4, with 49% approving and 45% disapproving. That contrasted with a Morning Consult poll on Feb. 2 that gave him +33, with a 63% to 30 approval-disapproval split.

Nutmeg asked no horse-race question regarding the contest for the Republican gubernatorial nomination, but it did test the favorability and unfavorability of four candidates, including one who registered a campaign committee last year but is neither raising nor expanding money.

Sen. Ryan Fazio of Greenwich and former Mayor Erin Stewart of New Britain had similar favorability ratings among likely GOP primary voters: 42% for Fazio and 40% for Stewart. 

But Stewart, who has been a target of negative mailings from an independent expenditure group, was viewed unfavorably by 22%, compared to 3% for Fazio. The other voters were either neutral or undecided.

Betsy McCaughey, a late entrant in the race, was viewed favorably by 14% and unfavorably by 4%. Fifty-one percent had no opinion and 31% were neutral about the Newsmax cable host and former New York lieutenant governor.

The poll also asked about Timothy Wilcox, a Republican candidate waging no discernible campaign. In creating a candidate committee, Wilcox filed a statement that he would not be raising or spending any money. 

By the measure of the Nutmeg poll, 26% of Republicans have a favorable opinion  compared to 3% unfavorable, 8% neutral and 63% with no opinion.

The poll was conducted from Feb. 12 to 16 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 4.1% on questions posed to all voters and higher margins of error on the smaller subsets of Democrats and Republicans; plus or minus 7.4% for Democrats and plus or minus 9.8% for Republicans.